No Religious Indoctrination Or Divinity Required To Grow Into A Morally Upright Human
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
8 April
2023
A truly
secular person really feels good to read that Manoj Bajpayee and his wife,
Shabana Raza, still follow their respective faiths, Hinduism and Islam
respectively and they've not imposed any faith on their daughter. ' Let her
find on her own, ' is their approach to an individual's religion. Filmmaker
Kabir Khan, though he calls himself an atheist, and his Hindu wife Mini Mathur
have also not gone into the rigmarole of conversion. These are heartening signs
and must serve as exemplary precedents for inter-faith couples to follow.
A few years
ago, Wasim Akram's second wife, who's an Australian, gave a candid interview to
an Oz magazine, People. When the interviewer asked her whether she was happy to
get converted to her husband's religion, she gave a classic reply, 'Religion is
an extremely private and personal issue, changing it for the sake of one's
spouse and embracing his or her faith is akin to parting with your cherished
principles, much to your reluctance.' The much longer interview was later
removed from the website of the magazine.
Yes,
changing a religion for the sake of one's spouse is going against one's
long-held belief/s. It also lacks sincerity.
Just
imagine, weaned on Ramayan, Mahabharat and other ingrained Hindu beliefs, if a
person has to recite Kalma and memorise Quranic verses after marriage, will not
his/her inner self secretly militate against that? The same can be said about a
Muslim person, who's forced to convert to Hinduism after marriage so that the
couple should be on an even keel. Will a monotheistic Muslim ever accept
polytheistic Hinduism and its superstitions?
Conversion
must happen from within. It's a very long process of introspection and soul-searching.
It cannot be imposed or implemented. But in Semitic faiths, esp. in
Christianity and Islam, the insistence on both the individuals being Christian
or Muslim has created much bad-blood.
Manoj
Bajpayee and Shabana Raza's decision to raise their daughter without any faith
should also be emulated by others. This is a revolutionary thought. A child is
not your property. Let your child take a decision regarding his/her faith or
no-faith at all with age and the passage of time.
I don't
advocate the outright banishment of god. That's also intellectual militancy and
some kind of mental problem. Dr Shriram Lagoo kept saying God la retire kara (
Banish god) ad nauseam, but was frightened before death. Mind you, all
obsequies according to Brahminical Hinduism were performed when he passed away
in Poona so that his soul could rest in peace! It's not easy to be an atheist.
So, teach
your children about god but not as someone who punishes you for eating non-veg
on Tuesdays ( as is the trend in northern India) or curd on Fridays or making
love to your spouse or partner during the Lent or Ramzan or on Ash Wednesday.
This is primitivism and too puerile to think. Rather, teach your kid that what
we call god is not a bearded bugbear sitting somewhere beyond the galaxy, but
the sum total of all that's good in the world.
Teach your
child to be good sans any faith or fear of god. To be go(o)d is to be god. No
religious indoctrination or simulated divinity is required for a child to grow
into a morally upright human.
Agreed,
it's well-nigh impossible for an average individual to grow without
conventional religions and an over and ever-intrusive god, but to quote
Dushyant Kumar Tyagi, 'Kar De Jo Aasman Ke Seene Mein Suraakh /Aisa Koi
Patthar Tabeeyat Se Uchhalo, Yaaro' ( Throw a stone up so high/ That can
make a dent in the heart of the sky).
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A regular
columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/religious-indoctrination-divinity-human/d/129513
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